At least 12 feet beneath the surface of Henry Hagg Lake, Deputy Robby Nashif couldn't see his hands in front of his face.

After about 11 years as a member of the Clackamas County Sheriff's Office's Dive and Rescue Team, Nashif knows when he's in pitch-black conditions such as this, to make short sweeps with his arms when searching for small objects and large sweeps for bigger ones. In this case, he stretched his arms as wide as he could and fanned them back and forth.

Nashif soon brushed against an arm. Then touched a hand. He took the hand into his and squeezed, not sure if it was his diving partner. The hand did not squeeze back.

"It's an eerie feeling when you reach out and grab a hand or other body part," said Nashif, who estimates participating in 200 to 300 rescue and recovery missions from around the state. "It's a feeling that I don't wish on anyone else to experience."

Nashif and four other divers helped recover three people from the bottom of the Gaston-area lake on Tuesday: 13-year-old Michael Garcia-Ixtacua; his sister, 25-year-old Gabriela Garcia-Ixtacua; and their mother, 42-year-old Jova Ixtacua-Castano. Gabriela's 3-year-old son, Jeremy Scholl, was found dead in the water Monday.

The family lived together in Hillsboro and spent Monday afternoon at a lake picnic area, Sgt. Bob Ray, a Washington County Sheriff's spokesman said. Michael would have started eighth grade at Evergreen Middle School next week, said Beth Graser, a Hillsboro School District spokeswoman.

Investigators believe at least one of the family members was struggling while swimming in the water near Sain Creek when the others went in to try and save the distressed swimmer, according to Ray. He said one drowning likely led to the other three, and that all may have been preventable had the swimmers worn life jackets.

But there were no apparent witnesses of the drownings, so investigators will likely never know the precise details of what actually happened, Ray said. No foul play is suspected.

"It's especially tragic here because three generations of a family is gone, all at once. It's heartbreaking," said Nashif, 40. "This one will probably stick with me for a very long time."

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Nashif was at home with his family at about 11 p.m. Monday, when he got a page from his sergeant that the Washington County Sheriff's Office was asking for help to search Henry Hagg Lake the following morning. Whenever an outside agency asks for help from the Clackamas County Sheriff's Office Dive and Rescue Team, it's almost always to recover the body of a person, Nashif said.

Nashif had already learned Scholl's body had been found earlier that day. The news left him with a "rotten" feeling before he went to sleep that night. The worst calls to go out on as an emergency responder during a recovery mission are the ones involving children, he said.

Deputies had searched the area surrounding the lake for the boy's parents, but couldn't find them. Investigators tracked down Scholl's relatives from a car registered to his mother still at the lake and learned there could be other victims, Ray said.

By 9 a.m., Tuesday, Nashiff's dive team and the Washington County Sheriff's marine patrol unit were briefed that there may be three other people still in the water.

The dive team was at Hagg Lake by 10:30 a.m., Nashif said, and was in the water a half hour later. The crew began with a brief search along the shoreline, looking for any apparent sign of entry into the water.

The Washington County Sheriff's Office had left cones marking the spots where items were found, according to Nashif. One spot had two shoes. Several feet away, another cone marked where a pair of shoes and a cell phone were found. The divers guessed the latter may have been caused by someone quickly discarding their items before going into the lake. Nashif and another dive team member waded into the water from that point.

"We knew that if we were able to find one person, it would be very likely we would find the others nearby," Nashif said.

The majority of the lake near Sain Creek is about three to four feet deep. But at least 30 feet from the shoreline, a steep drop off where the creek flows into the lake causes the depth to drop nearly 15 feet, according to Nashif.

As the divers went closer and closer to the lake floor, the light decreased and temperatures fell, Nashif said. It was pitch black by the time they reached the bottom.

It was about 11:45 a.m., when Nashif's dive partner found Michael Garcia-Ixtacua at about 13 feet below the surface. Nashif found his sister about five minutes later a couple of feet away. Their mother was found around 12:15 p.m., nearly 40 feet from the shore in about eight feet of water. The three were found about 25 yards away from where Scholl was discovered the day before.

None of them were wearing flotation devices.

The last drowning at Hagg Lake occurred in 2008, when a 27-year-old Portland man couldn't make it back to shore while crossing the creek. That drowning occurred where the three people were found on Tuesday, according to Nashif.

A rack with free life jackets to borrow was installed at the lake soon after the 2008 drowning.

Nashif, the father of three girls, including a 13-year-old, said today's recovery hit close to home because "it could have been one of my kids."

Nashif, who joined the sheriff's office in 1998 after three years at the Keizer Police Department, he says he's learned over the years to compartmentalize the recovery missions he's involved in to keep from getting overwhelmed. Some stay fresh in his mind.